Sebi clears charges against Pranav Adani and his two relatives in insider trading case

New Delhi: Markets regulator Sebi on Friday cleared Pranav Adani, a director in several Adani Group companies and nephew of billionaire Gautam Adani, of allegations that he shared price-sensitive information and violated insider-trading rules.

Apart from Adani, Sebi has cleared the charges of insider trading against his two relatives.

The case centred on whether he had disclosed confidential details about Adani Green Energy’s planned acquisition of SB Energy before the information became public.

To examine this, Sebi investigated trading in Adani Green Energy shares between January 28 and August 20, 2021. After reviewing an investigation report in November 2023, the regulator believed there could have been breaches of insider-trading norms and therefore initiated proceedings against three noticees — Pranav Adani, Kunal Dhanpalbhai Shah, and Nrupal Dhanpalbhai Shah.

Kunal is married to Pranav Adani’s cousin, and Nrupal is married to Pranav Adani’s sister. Kunal and Nrupal Shah are brothers.

While Pranav Adani was accused of sharing unpublished price-sensitive information, the Shahs were alleged to have used that information to trade and earn unlawful gains. These accusations were detailed in a show-cause notice issued on November 10, 2023.

However, after completing the investigation, Sebi found no evidence that Adani had shared any UPSI or that the Shahs had traded on insider information.

In its 50-page order, Sebi noted, “the call dated May 16, 2021, was not for communicating any UPSI by Noticee No.1 (Pranav) and trades of Noticees No. 2 (Kunal) and 3 (Nrupal) were genuine and not influenced by any UPSI about the company or its securities.”

The regulator concluded that the allegations could not be sustained, and since the trades were genuine, no penalties or directions were warranted.

Accordingly, Sebi disposed of the show-cause notice issued in November 2023 and closed the matter.